I Can Contract Beauties-Chapter 126: Issuing A Duel

The meal lasted for almost two hours before everyone was satisfied, including Miguel, who had eaten the most of the group.

The food was delicious, and it was apparent that it was cooked by professionals. Although none of the food was from a graded beast, Miguel and the others could still tell that it came from premium meat.

For Miguel, who only knew how to cook roasted meat, every food seemed heavenly to his taste. It was also much better compared to Sara’s cooking, but Sara’s cooking tasted different due to her cooking it with all her heart.

After the servants cleaned the table, he stood up from his seat and made a closing speech to end this little feast of celebration.

After he was done, he turned to look at Miguel at the far end of the table and directly asked, "Mister Journey, I once again express my sincere gratitude and respect for your noble actions in saving the future of my Red Family."

"At the same time, forgive me for being presumptuous, but may I request a friendly duel between the two of us?"

"You see, I have always loved battling the strong since I was young, and that pursuit had never once dwindled, even when I became a City Lord. It’s just that being a City Lord is such a busy job. I hardly had the time to fight all these while at all," he lamented with a deep sigh as he dropped his shoulders dejectedly.

He then looked at Miguel once more with a determined gaze and said, "It’s very rare to encounter a strong person like you. Will you be kind enough to grant my request? Mister Journey?"

Hearing that, Miguel merely smiled beneath the mask, seeing through what he wanted to do easily.

He just wanted to verify if what he heard about Journey’s strength was real or not. And one way to verify it without arousing suspicions was by asking for a fair duel in front of a lot of witnesses.

Miguel understood his plots very well, but he was not about to foil them.

This also worked better for him. It allowed him to inform the others that his strength was real and was not something made up by Erika and the others.

With Alderic suggesting it himself, it also won’t be seen as a deliberate action for him to show off in front of others.

Miguel stood up from his seat and shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "Fine by me. Where shall we do it?"

Hearing that, everyone was obviously surprised that ’Journey’ agreed to it immediately, especially Alderic, who already thought of a lot of convincing words to convince ’Journey’ to let him show and verify his strength.

He was suddenly at a loss for words, as he did not expect him to agree readily.

He could only clear his throat before saying, "Ehemm. About that.. Let’s do it in the training field at the back of the manor."

"Sure, lead the way," Miguel stated calmly as he began walking toward Alderic.

Edith followed behind him without saying a word, as the gazes of everyone present followed behind them.

None of them were able to react to the sudden duel. They each looked at each other and only recovered from their stupor after ’Journey’ and Edith had already arrived right beside City Lord Alderic.

They immediately stood up as they followed behind the two of them along with the guards.

Those who’ve seen Edith fight and knew of City Lord’s strength knew the outcome of this battle already.

None of them believed that ’Journey’ would lose to Alderic at all.

Unknowingly, faith had already risen inside them as their absolute belief that ’Journey’ was super strong just got reinforced.

The group finally arrived at the training area after a few minutes.

Alderic mentioned earlier that it was usually just the guards that used this area to maintain their tip-top condition by training here daily.

The training area was exceptionally wide and spacious. It looked like a mini-arena with a wide space in the middle for everyone to train martial arts or to spar if they liked.

Although it was already night, the area was still lit perfectly with the dozens of lamps that surrounded the entire area.

At this moment, Miguel and Alderic stood opposite each other, with Edith right beside Miguel.

Alderic already knew in advance that Edith was ’Journey’s’ summoned beast, so he was not surprised to see her standing right beside him in this duel.

Alderic looked at the two of them with a frown on his face. He could tell that Journey and Edith did not take this duel to heart at all. They still looked carefree, as though they were not dealing with a strong opponent.

Even though he only wanted to test the waters, Alderic felt insulted by their actions, thinking that they were trying to underestimate him.

The crowd, on the other hand, stood far away from the two of them. They were at the edge of the training area, afraid that they would be caught up in their battle.

Even though the guards were situated at the edge, they were ready to respond if anything went awry during the battle. The two guards, who had always been on Alderic’s side, were especially focused, knowing that their City Lord was now trying to fight a possibly formidable opponent.

"As for the rules of the duel, do you have something in mind or let it stay as it is?" Alderic asked.

"Hmm? I don’t know such rules anymore; you tell me," Miguel stated calmly.

Alderic nodded his head and thought that it made sense. After all, he knew that ’Journey’ had been in seclusion for too long and that the duel rules during his time might be different than the current ones.

"So it’s like this. We can choose to summon our grimoire and beast at the start of the battle, or we can do it right after the battle starts." As he said this, his gaze suddenly hovered over Edith, and he could only wryly smile.

"Let’s just summon our grimoire and beasts ahead of time, then. As for the next rule, we must agree if this is a group battle or a one-versus-one duel between our summoned beast."

Summoners from Elite Rank and above can already begin to summon multiple summons at once. In order to establish a fair duel, they must decide beforehand if they were doing a group battle or just the standard one-versus-one.

"Interesting. Let’s do a group battle then," Miguel stated confidently.

"Alright. Since it’s a group battle, we need to summon all the participating beasts ahead of time. Next, since this is only a duel, we must agree not to kill any of our beasts during the battle. The one who violates this rule must openly admit their defeat, even if it’s just by accident."

"And last, to determine the winner, all participating beasts must no longer have the capability to fight. Do you agree to these rules, Mr. Journey?"

"Well, I agree with all of it. But might I add one more thing? "

Alderic did not think too much about it and agreed without much thought.

"Since this is a duel, it’s only fair that the winner must win something and the loser must lose something, right?" Miguel stared at Alderic with a smile visible in his deep black eyes.

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A/N: Extra Chapter for surpassing 400 Power Stones last week. Huge thanks to those who votted as always.